Postal voting

[andrewducker]

[Poll #1562419]

I think that postal voting has real problems - as I've been discussing over here (worth reading the post that's attached to too, it's very interesting).

The basic problem boils down to this - if you're voting from home then there's nothing to stop someone bribing you to vote X, and then sitting behind you while you click the button/write on the form. Similarly, much more social pressure to conform can be exerted. Whereas, if you're voting in a booth then you can say "Yes, I voted X." when actually you voted "Y", no matter how much social pressure is exerted. See The Times article on that link for an example of that kind of pressure being exerted.

Comments

[lilysea.livejournal.com]

I chose

The ability to vote from your own home

because I was thinking of the difficulties in getting to a polling booth faced by people with mobility issues / people with small children / people caring for elderly parents.

I would rather that these people have the ability for a postal vote, than have to pay for a taxi and / or be forced to use up all their spoons in order to vote.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

A consequence of the rise in postal voting is that party activists spend much less time driving people to and from polling stations.